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[accanada]

Not sure whats going on here but Im concerned my entire database is screwed...

When i play some files I hear bits and pieces of other songs sqelching in and out...doesnt matter what media player I use and not all the files do it....

HELP!

[glynor]

I had a flaky hard drive once a long while ago that did that to files seemingly at random.  The actual MP3 files themselves were corrupted.  I still find one in my library every so often.

Assuming this is the case with you, there's no option to fix it other than to delete the offending file and re-rip it from disc.  (And trash the drive of course.)

[hit_ny]

test mp3s for sync errors with mp3utility

[glynor]

Foobar2000 also has the ability to test MP3 and other audio types for sync errors.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but... I thought sync errors only caused audible "blips" occasionally in the music stream (because a sync error is a missing header on a "frame" of audio data in the MP3, and when the decoder encounters a headerless frame, it skips it, causing an audible blip).  I wouldn't think this could cause the mixing that the parent poster is talking about (and which I've heard).

I'd strongly suggest you do a thorough scan of your hard disk with the utility provided by the manufacturer of your hard drive (use the "long" scan option if it gives you one).

If it finds a number of bad sectors, I would be hesitant to rely on the drive further, even if the tool reports it can repair them. The truth is that there is no way to repair a bad sector, it simply marks that the sector is bad and the drive doesn't use it anymore.  All drives have some bad sectors, but they shouldn't show up in these tests because they should be hidden by the drive's automatic internal defect management (they are scanned after they are first made and the defects are mapped and the drive never uses them).  However, as drives age, they commonly "grow" new bad sectors as they begin to fail.  This isn't so good.

If you only find a handful (5 or 10 or 20) and the drive is a little old, this might be okay, but I'd begin to "not trust" the drive and only use it for non-essential data.  If the scan finds hundreds or thousands of bad sectors, then it's not just growing them, but it has full-blown defect cancer and it is time to lay the guy to rest.

Some good free tester tools are listed here: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/tophddiag.htm

The best tool is really SpinRite from Steve Gibson.  It isn't cheap, but it is the best.  More info here: http://www.grc.com/sranalysis.htm

[AoXoMoXoA]

This sounds like cross-linked files (possibly due to drive or read/write errors).
I had this occur long ago and the files were unrecoverable.

[hit_ny]

I'd strongly suggest you do a thorough scan of your hard disk with the utility provided by the manufacturer of your hard drive (use the "long" scan option if it gives you one).

Any idea of the duration 'long' takes for say a 250GB drive ?

What do you make of S.M.A.R.T. info testing tools like speeddisk  ?
..sure a scan of each sector is the most exhaustive test you can do but why do i get the impression it takes forever.

[glynor]

The long test does take hours and hours, but it is really the only way to get an accurate picture of what is going on on the physical disk itself.  Not something I'd want to do every day, but if you are seeing disk-corruption symptoms, it is worth the wait.  SpinRite can read at about 2GB/minute in the best conditions (it slows down when it encounters damaged areas), so that works out to 120GB/hour.  It is the fastest around.  I recently had to run the Seagate long scan on a bad 750GB drive (brand new, was bad when received) and it took about 11 hours to finish (and the drive was blank).

S.M.A.R.T. is okay and useful, but what it can report on is quite limited in most cases.  SpinRite actually can monitor the "advanced" SMART event counters while the drive is in use.  Most other tools, including SpeedDisk and other similar tools, only report the static "standard" SMART parameters (SMART status).  These are of limited use because they are simple Pass/Fail measurements, which are static while the disk is running (it is tested during POST and not again until you reboot).  Obviously, how a drive performs can vary under load.  Also, these Pass/Fail parameters don't tell you anything about what has actually happened on the disk in the past.  It is simply a snapshot of how it is performing right that second (at boot).  From Wikipedia:

The most basic information that SMART provides is the SMART status. It provides only two values, "threshold not exceeded" or "threshold exceeded". Often these are represented as "drive OK" or "drive fail" respectively. A "threshold exceeded" value is intended to indicate that there is a relatively high probability that the drive will not be able to honor its specification in the future: that is, it's "about to fail". The predicted failure may be catastrophic or may be something as subtle as inability to write to certain sectors or slower performance than the manufacturer's minimum.

The SMART status does not necessarily indicate the drive's reliability now or in the past. If the drive has already failed catastrophically, the SMART status may be inaccessible. If the drive was experiencing problems in the past, but now the sensors indicate that the problems no longer exist, the SMART status may indicate the drive is OK, depending on the manufacturer's programming.

[hit_ny]

How immune would checksum tests be against HD corruption ?

the theory goes if the HD is failing then checksums will indicate which files are problematic. During monthly backups i just run them (several hours) before a sync.

Now this only works if you don't update your file tags and keep everything in the databse. Not an option for everyone i can accept.

[accanada]

I love you guys...

Even though Im pretty sure most of many data us $%^&) - I have an answer I can live with...the mp3 utility sifted through most of it some of the data was good....it would have taken me hundreds of hours to listen to each one to figure out what the utility did in minutes..thanks you


In regards to the drive Im a little puzzled...  It a Brand new 500 gig usb2 WD external...I can several test and It all looked fine...  I have about 10000 songs in a different directory on the same drive that was fine...the one that were not were ones that I recently transferred mp3 data from cds unto the drive...the cds were in bad shape maybe that has something to do with it..

Anyhow..thanks

[glynor]

Possibly it was the discs themselves, but I think this is unlikely (especially if the mixing is from different artists or whatever).

Even if it is a brand new hard drive (or maybe even especially if it is -- I've gotten brand new bad drives, like the Seagate I mentioned) I'd recommend thoroughly testing it.  Download and use the "extended test" in the Western Digital utility.  I've had the best luck with their DOS utility, as opposed to the Windows one (which seems more limited in what it can test).  Download the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic DOS (CD-Rom) here.  Then, you need to burn the utility to disc, and then boot your computer using that CD-ROM.

Then it's fairly simple to test the hard drive.  If it does happen to be bad, it'd be best to figure it out now before you fill it up with too much stuff (and while it is still under warranty)!

[hit_ny]

This sounds like cross-linked files (possibly due to drive or read/write errors).
I had this occur long ago and the files were unrecoverable.

Is this possible with NTFS ?

[glynor]

It is still possible, but no where near as common.

[MadJewDisaster]

you had any kind of prob with your drive
can be bad connection , can be many other things
it mixed your mp3 , making one from many
if you still have the mp3 , look , i'am sure they all show 320 as bitrate
i had this prob once , was a bad connection from the IDE cable.